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The fan belt snapped in the first tank. The reserve tank was then deployed for the race but its entire engine oil leaked just two kilometres before the end...it could not complete the race. It was sheer bad luck that led to the Indian team being disqualified

Looks like 1 unit overheated, and the other unit was not maintained correctly.

"The fan belt snapped in the first tank. The reserve tank was then deployed for the race but its entire engine oil leaked just two kilometres before the end...it could not complete the race. It was sheer bad luck that led to the Indian team being disqualified," said an officer.[We need fresh and honest battle between T90 vs Arjun..I am very sure Arjun will trimph with great margin..Our beast needs a fair chance..]

Austin wrote:Indian Tankers did not do much well in tank competition Much like last year this year performance was much to be desired

Please. Don't blame the tank crews for the reliability of their equipment.

The same equipment is used by every one 18 countries , even if you disqualify the current situation as sheer bad luck even then it's 10 days into competition and last I saw we stood 6th or 7th behind even small cis countries.

A lemon is a lemon is a lemon. Whether T90 or T90S aor the latest T90 SM on which Indian Army is going to spend big bucks. Now the Natasha lobby will start blaming defects and problems in Indian screw driver giri for the fiasco in the competition.

Guys, look at it this way. After this fiasco, perhaps senior leadership in the Army will look at the Arjun in a more favorable light. Regimental / Unit izzat is everything in the Army. Time for that 'izzat' to bear fruit.

Viv S wrote:Please. Don't blame the tank crews for the reliability of their equipment.

The same equipment is used by every one 18 countries , even if you disqualify the current situation as sheer bad luck even then it's 10 days into competition and last I saw we stood 6th or 7th behind even small cis countries.

Last year too when all went well Indian tank crew was not in top 5

How was the targeting performance of Indian crew? That is probably more important than oil leaks.

Out of the teams probably we are the only ones who are on constant alert of being pushed in to war with Pakistan any moment. So I don't expect out kit to be in a shape for games, given the constant excerises they are subjected in thar desert.

nam wrote:How was the targeting performance of Indian crew? That is probably more important than oil leaks.

Out of the teams probably we are the only ones who are on constant alert of being pushed in to war with Pakistan any moment. So I don't expect out kit to be in a shape for games, given the constant excerises they are subjected in thar desert.

Might sound like a execuse, but that's my view.

Shouldn't it be other way around then since we would be having a set of well tuned crew and machines?

Viv S wrote:Please. Don't blame the tank crews for the reliability of their equipment.

The same equipment is used by every one 18 countries , even if you disqualify the current situation as sheer bad luck even then it's 10 days into competition and last I saw we stood 6th or 7th behind even small cis countries.

Last year too when all went well Indian tank crew was not in top 5

Hmm. Although you didn't mean it, you are making a case that tin cans are consistently leaving us inferior in the battlefield. I was almost certain that it must be those dhoti clad morons in DRDO/Avadi that are messing up but then I remembered, they are the same people who also built Arjun that beat the sh!t out of these tin cans.

Marten wrote:Please be direct with your assessment, Austin. What is it that you want to say?

Marten, he is direct. He says we have not been in the top 5. Now, that's a fact. Excuses/misfortunes can be anything.

Couldn't we have sent two teams, one of T-90s and another of Arjuns? Or, is it limited to just one team?

BTW, the T72s of some CIS have done very well.

There are two aspects to this: Kalina is used by every make, so how would any gunner miss a target unless they have failed to come to a full stop before taking aim? T-72 mechanical breakdowns are supposedly more than 90A/S/MS. I still do not know why a fan belt replacement would take more than 15 minutes -- does it require an engine dismount? Tried understanding the rules related to this, but didn't look hard enough. Are they not allowed to fix a pipeline leak with Mahindra M-Seal or Rin bar as they do on the field, and then move on?

Secondly, my guess is that everyone involved, including Russkiya maal lovers, would prefer that the operator team is blamed (since every one's machines are performing equally well.) They under-performed last year despite using machines provided by the hosts. They also under-performed each of the previous years using a mix. I don't see how the crew can escape blame even though they are doing their best. Only thought is that the T-90 versions we have are not rugged enough for Russian exercises.

Given all of this, and the lack of orders/supply chain for spares for the Arjun, it is best that we never field the Arjun until we have first managed to give and then deliver another order worth 500 units. Imagine flying out an Arjun or two and then lacking basic spares because well, we only want one type of MBT operating, and it's not the one we ordered.

Note that Kazakhstan and Belarus operated T-72 B3 ,Russian T-90 the Chinese had better tanks in terms of engine power against T-72 and T-90 still Kazakhstan came in 2nd , so a better tank won't give you any bigger advantage and competition is more that having a better tank. All the good reason we need to take Ajun next time

It's obvious 100% tanks suffered non repairable defects which are being under played. Difficult to believe mother Russia or the repair teams could not provide a can of oil or fan belt. Perhaps during a war, Chinese & Pakis will call time out or lend a hand.

nam wrote:How was the targeting performance of Indian crew? That is probably more important than oil leaks.

Out of the teams probably we are the only ones who are on constant alert of being pushed in to war with Pakistan any moment. So I don't expect out kit to be in a shape for games, given the constant excerises they are subjected in thar desert.

Might sound like a execuse, but that's my view.

Shouldn't it be other way around then since we would be having a set of well tuned crew and machines?

Not really. A six month old car covering 100k miles/km is not going to be in good shaped compared to a 1 month old with 10k. I don't know the state of the tank that participated, however don't see IA maintaining a garage queen for the sake of this competition. It would have picked up the least used tank, where "least used" might be 1000km covered in harsh Thar summer.

Hence as I mentioned, for me it is more important to know about the skills of the crew in target engagement rather than broken belt or oil leaks. These are war machines, they will break down and can be fixed. Crews and skills cannot be replaced.

Ofcourse all this without knowing the full details. There might as well been a maintenace lapse. Hopefully armour bosses will take the right lessons.

Marten wrote:Given all of this, and the lack of orders/supply chain for spares for the Arjun, it is best that we never field the Arjun until we have first managed to give and then deliver another order worth 500 units. Imagine flying out an Arjun or two and then lacking basic spares because well, we only want one type of MBT operating, and it's not the one we ordered.

Lack of orders can be no argument at all. We sent Tejas to Bahrain airshow with very little orders too.

The supply chain argument is even less convincing. After all, this is a contest and one goes with just essentials or most likely failure-prone components, just as it would have been for T-90.

It is more likely that there is entrenched antipathy for Arjun. We could not have done worse than the T-90s.

Now this is where Indian mic involved with Arjun should step up ... Even false they should have come all guns blazing against t 90.. Humiliated it and released a tfta video and used nationalistic fervor to do the rest..If not anything this doesn't do anything worse to Arjun the tank

ArjunPandit wrote:Now this is where Indian mic involved with Arjun should step up ... Even false they should have come all guns blazing against t 90.. Humiliated it and released a tfta video and used nationalistic fervor to do the rest..If not anything this doesn't do anything worse to Arjun the tank

ramana wrote:What was the pedigree of both the T90s sent? The engine oil after 2 km looks very fishy. Who ever was in charge of maintaining the tanks needs to be accountable.

Well the Tanks belong to 7 Cav and they are from 2010-11 time frame. (if one has patience one can see the number in front of driver, try and freeze a frame when the tank is getting out of Anti-Tank Ditch)

Well the sequence of events is as follows (nothing fishy, look at the semi-final race 3 video in you tube):- at the time of 3rd crew change the Tank no 1 was replaced with No 2 ( my guess the crew noted the engine oil issue. We were allowed to use another tank as we had 2 tanks qualify for Semi-finals-"my guess")- Crew No 3 was with Tank no 2 and this one had a Fan belt issue. - Now the Tank no 1 was reused as a back up tank and had a engine failure due to oil leakage just 2 km short on the last lap. (risk was taken to reuse the Tank No 1 which already had issue and finally the luck wore off)

Now the overall Semi-final guidelines were:- Each crew is to run 4 laps (3-5 km) overcoming obstacles and engaging targets on three firing lines. Gun firing on move; coaxial MG firing at halt. - 3 rotating crews from each team using only one tank.Lap Details: (order to be choose by crew i think so)1st lap – speed race 2nd lap – gun flank firing on move at three targets3rd lap – AA MG firing at targets 2 targets4th lap – coaxial MG firing at three targets

. The DGMF and the Indian Army, sabotaged the Arjun and killed it for THIS piece of S*it ? How did it pass any acceptance trials when it couldn't even complete an obstacle course (forget about coming first or last, just getting across the line would do ) and that too when TWO tanks (one back up of the other) both failed !

Clearly these are the same kind of PoS aka "Kakkoose" as the other PoS the Navy has got , the Mig 29 K . Amazing and simply unbelievable. Half the "equipment" (i.e. the TI sights active defence equipment..shtora and whatever) aren't installed and or simply don't work , even the friggin basic mechanicals are shot (come on, in this day and age, an engine belt snapping is absolutely nuts..it doesnt happen in civil life, those damn things are so reliable, can anyone here on the forum remember their car / truck engine belt snapping in the last 15 years, .. engine oil leaking ? phuck.. even the Royal Enfield Bullet, the original brit ones, which was legendary for leaving a puddle of oil behind when parked overnight has been fixed by the Indians via design fixes and made rock solid reliable , and this Kakoose leaks OIL wtf?).

I can at least rationalise it if the Army ditched a Desi maiden for an ultra hot & smashing foreign stuff, but the Army and Navy ditched a great Desi maiden for a dowdy, FUgly ,ding bat. Gosh, look at the pics of the Natasha the guy sent to get the Gorshkov done was bonking.. none would have given her a second glance in a street.

Marten wrote:Given all of this, and the lack of orders/supply chain for spares for the Arjun, it is best that we never field the Arjun until we have first managed to give and then deliver another order worth 500 units. Imagine flying out an Arjun or two and then lacking basic spares because well, we only want one type of MBT operating, and it's not the one we ordered.

Lack of orders can be no argument at all. We sent Tejas to Bahrain airshow with very little orders too.

The supply chain argument is even less convincing. After all, this is a contest and one goes with just essentials or most likely failure-prone components, just as it would have been for T-90.

It is more likely that there is entrenched antipathy for Arjun. We could not have done worse than the T-90s.

No quibbles there. In service tanks are currently non functional due to lack of spares. I doubt if CVRDE is able to keep suppliers interested. The apathy is so deep that it is deep animosity except by the sole unit that operates the Arjun. A senior colleague is a recently retired tanker and makes no bones of the fact that the Arjun was and is unwanted. I don't to use harsh phrases but some accountability must be fixed for those that created/enabled/allowed this wild goose that has left us in this current situation.

Indian T90s in this competition did not have any ERA on the front part of the turret. This is the first time they were seen in this avatar.. Is this a norm or just happened to be the case for these tanks? Off and on, there were stories that indigenous Kanchan armor was used in the armor cavities of the T90 welded turret as the Russians refused to part with their armor tech. Perhaps the Kanchan is considered strong enough and no ERA is needed on that part?

ramana wrote:What was the pedigree of both the T90s sent? The engine oil after 2 km looks very fishy. Who ever was in charge of maintaining the tanks needs to be accountable.

Well the Tanks belong to 7 Cav and they are from 2010-11 time frame. (if one has patience one can see the number in front of driver, try and freeze a frame when the tank is getting out of Anti-Tank Ditch)

Well the sequence of events is as follows (nothing fishy, look at the semi-final race 3 video in you tube):- at the time of 3rd crew change the Tank no 1 was replaced with No 2 ( my guess the crew noted the engine oil issue. We were allowed to use another tank as we had 2 tanks qualify for Semi-finals-"my guess")- Crew No 3 was with Tank no 2 and this one had a Fan belt issue. - Now the Tank no 1 was reused as a back up tank and had a engine failure due to oil leakage just 2 km short on the last lap. (risk was taken to reuse the Tank No 1 which already had issue and finally the luck wore off)

Now the overall Semi-final guidelines were:- Each crew is to run 4 laps (3-5 km) overcoming obstacles and engaging targets on three firing lines. Gun firing on move; coaxial MG firing at halt. - 3 rotating crews from each team using only one tank.Lap Details: (order to be choose by crew i think so)1st lap – speed race 2nd lap – gun flank firing on move at three targets3rd lap – AA MG firing at targets 2 targets4th lap – coaxial MG firing at three targets

So these are fairly new tanks and could not have seen much service to have fan belt broken or oil leaks. What is the history of fan belt breaking? Also it broke on the Tank #2 which may be didn't see much service. Were these two tanks overhalued at the depot before sending to the competition?

How did they perform in the shooting part of the competition: Lap 2, Lap 3, and Lap3?

ramana wrote:So these are fairly new tanks and could not have seen much service to have fan belt broken or oil leaks. What is the history of fan belt breaking? Also it broke on the Tank #2 which may be didn't see much service. Were these two tanks overhalued at the depot before sending to the competition?

How did they perform in the shooting part of the competition: Lap 2, Lap 3, and Lap3?

Fan belt broken is what is in the news. Its a Rubber part can break.

Oil leak is more of a maintenance issue (my view) (these kind of machines have oil pressure sensor, thus they knew there is a problem and it was replaced with Tank No 2. Even if you top up oil when Tank No 1 was reused it was just a plain Know Risk taken, they were just hopeing it will last till end)( now if CAG were to audit this, they will blame the officer who authorized the reuse of Tank No 1 with know issue of oil leak. They will do an audit noteing saying Officer XYZ knowingly used an equipment which had an engine issue and as a result had a engine running without engine oil, resulting in loss of an engine costing GoI 2-3 cr approx.)

Both Tank No1 and Tank No 2 were part of Individual Race of stage 1. (Plus there was a Tank No 3 which missed semi-finals by 60 Sec)

Each Crew Did 4 laps.

What I observed was over all for all countries in semi-finals:- No 3 crew was first to start and then No 2 crew and then best crew to end like a Relay race.

As for Shooting we were better but firing on move should have been better.

China strategy was we have a light tank with greater hp ratio so just be fast, miss target and do penalty laps and they did this and were FAST, quite fast.

IA does not have a policy of out of turn overhaul of equipment. So no chance the Tanks were jsut overhauled.

Out of All the Tanks used T-90 had the weakest engine as per specifications.